Hey guys
Been pondering getting a synth!
I have no musical background. I have never played keyboards or the like.
I don’t understand the structure of music. I’m totally useless.
I love electronic 80’s music and 90’s trance etc.. and always fancied playing about with something real simple to make some cool sounds. A bit like Ross from friends
.
I don’t own a computer. Is there anything simple and cheap you can guys can recommend as a gateway drug.
Ridiculous question but where does the sound come out from. Built in speaker? Or would I need an amp and speakers?
Sorry for the absolute noob questions.
Any recommendations and advice gratefully received. Links to good beginner vids etc..
merry Xmas all.
Gaz
Hi Gaz,
Good news is there's loads of modern kit available these days to give you those 80's/90's sounds without needing to buy a vintage synth from those decades, with risk of faults and maintenance. Synths generally won't have speakers (with some exceptions see below) and keyboards that do are more 'home keyboards/organs'. Unless you use headphones, you'll need an amp and speakers but best using active monitors (studio speaker set) rather than hi-fi speakers. You don't need to read music or be able to play either really, a synthesizer historically was more about creating a sound of your own from scratch.
Question is, do you want to learn how to program a sound, just recall patches that are already programmed and/or edit them slightly, or all three? Also, whats your budget? I'm guessing you want to call up patches, particularly those that sound 80's / 90's but then have a control panel to edit or change the sound too? Low cost starter synths that may suit are the Roland Boutique range, there are several models designed to recreate classic synths from the 80's/90's, they are very small desktop units and cheap but you would also need a midi keyboard controller to play the sounds. Take a look at JX-08 which is recreation of the 80's JX8P synth, or JU-06A which is a reproduction of the classic Roland Juno 60 used on countless hit records of that decade. Most of these are 4-voice (means you can only play four keys at a time together for chords) but the JX-08 is actually 8 voice which is a bonus. There are also 90's sounding units; JD-08, D50 etc. which recreate the digital synths of the 90's. The JD08 also has a programming interface.
If you want a full size keyboard synth with loads of patches, programming/editing capability and includes recreations of classic synths like Jupiter 8 and Juno 60, take a look at the Roland Juno X (prob around £1,200 SH these days). This will also allow you to lay down drums with bass lines/sequences etc. to play over top (when you get to that stage). It has built in effects too PLUS a built in speaker, but it sounds naff through it and really needs a set of active monitors (Yamaha HS50's for example). This synth includes several of those boutique units mentioned above already built in, plus it's own synth engine.
There are hundreds of other options too, but many might be too complicated for a first synth. Check out Behringer stuff, they've recreated a lot of classic synths and are cheap. Deepmind 6 or 12 for example, or the the Poly D (£350 SH) which is a fantastic recreation of the classic Minimoog (think Gary Numan) but is generally monophonic (one note at a time) and no memories for patches, but is good way to learn subtractive synthesis as the sound creation is laid out from left to right to help learn about oscillators, filters and sound envelopes to create certain sounds.
Anyway, maybe start with something you can just stick your headphones in and have a play around with, then go from there. Just give me or others in here a shout if need any help or pointers to stuff/controllers/cables etc. you may need. I've been buying, using and selling synths for 40 years, so should be able to give you a good idea on good prices for something when you narrow it down.
Think it will be a long while before any SH ones filter through on Ebay etc.
